Effect of humour on reduction of hopelessness and increase of social adjustment in mothers of children with intellectual disability

Abstract

Introduction: This study aims to determine the effect of humour training on reducing hopelessness and increasing social adjustment in mothers of children with intellectual disability. Method: In this quasi-experimental study, the statistical population was all the mothers of children with intellectual disability in District 7, city of Mashhad, in the 2015-2016 school year. Using multi-stage sampling 50 mothers of children with intellectual disability among those randomly selected were allocated into case and control groups (each group, n = 25). At first, Beck Hopelessness and Bell social adjustment questionnaire was implemented as a pretest in both groups, after which, only the case group was given humor training for 8 one and a half hour sessions. At the end the posttest was carried out in the two groups. The data were analyzed by SPSS-21 software and Covariance analysis test. Results: The results show that humour training reduces hopelessness (P<0.05) and increases social adjustment of mothers of children with intellectual disability (P<0.05) significantly. Discussion and Conclusion: According to the findings, humor training has a significant effect on reduction of hopelessness and increase of social adjustment in mothers of children with intellectual disability. Thus. it is recommended to use this training for mothers of these children, by specialists.